


2041

by paris7hilton



Category: Bubblegum Crisis Toyko 2040
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:07:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22698373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paris7hilton/pseuds/paris7hilton
Summary: Linna still wants to make a difference in the world but isn’t sure where to start.
Relationships: Priss Asagiri/Linna Yamazaki
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. DIANA (THE HERALD)

The sky opened and light began to fall like rain, infecting everything it touched. Galatea’s gentle hand ran the sensitive curve of flesh, fingers finding and curling into the folds of her brain. They began to stroke softly, pressure and speed increasing rhythmically, fondling the strings of code and DNA twined, spindling red branches swollen from the contact.

-

Nene’s stirrings roused Linna slightly, easing her from her dream and to the physical touch of sand and crabgrass beneath them and the welcome weight of another human. She wrapped her arms around Nene then, touched her lips to the girl’s head. Sweet, resourceful Nene. They had lived!

Her mind cleared and she saw waves on the shore.

Not wanting to break the spell, she waited. Eventually Nene blinked, but didn’t move from her seated position cradled against Linna. “You stopped snoring.”

Linna could only laugh as she let Nene pull apart from her and they stood, naked, facing the sea together. Waves crashed against their hardsuit remains.

-

People came for them. People in suits who discreetly carried away all evidence of them being there. Linna assumed they were sent by Sylia, didn’t know anyone else who could have. How exactly Sylia knew their location she couldn’t tell. Maybe there was something in the hardsuits, still.

She hugged Nene tight as their paths forked. Linna to the countryside, Nene to the city. Like nothing in the past year had ultimately changed anything, or mattered. Simply preserved, moments strung together, existing simply as it was. Wasn’t that the point?

Their goodbye was uncharacteristically silent, but Nene held a long, hard stare into Linna’s eyes and there was an unspoken understanding between them.

Arriving home was a commotion. Mother pawed at her, and father’s questions seemed to have no end. Cousins, uncles, and aunts came to see her, spectacle that she was now. City girl. Girl who saw the decimation of Tokyo.

They sat and ate dinner. No one dared to ask Linna about what happened, maybe out of some form of respect. Probably out of politeness. News reception was spotty and highly inaccurate. Relatives traded conspiracy theories.   
“I heard it was the fault of GENOM.”   
“Not possible, you really think they’d kill hundreds of thousands and destroy their own property without anyone finding out?”

“Boomers practically became a household appliance after that!”   
“They’re not appliances!”   
“You’re crazy.”

“Calm down,”   
“No way!”   
“If you really believe that, you-”   
“It just doesn’t add up…”

  
Linna had to excuse herself to the porch before her nerves got jumbled up any worse.

“What’s wrong?”

Never a moment alone. It was her mom who had followed her outside.

“Oh, I'm… adjusting. I don’t feel well. Maybe it’s the difference in air pressure or something.”

  
Her mom sat down next to her, smoothing her skirt and drawing a hand to Linna’s forehead. It only took a moment. “What’s really bothering you, Linna?”

  
“I guess I didn’t expect to be back here, after I tried so hard to get a job in Tokyo.”

“Maybe it’s fate that you’ve come back. Have you considered what you’ll do now? Tokyo just started rebuilding, most people haven’t been able to return. They say it could take years. You should stay here in Kyushu.”

“Not this again-”

  
“Linna, we almost lost you. We had no clue where you were, were scared you didn’t evacuate in time. Thought we’d never see you again.”

  
Linna considered the sentiment, or really tried to. “We went over this, I’m not going to accomplish anything here.”

Her mother clicked her tongue. “Why, getting married and raising a family isn’t an accomplishment to you? Because it’s what everyone else does? Well Linna, I, for one, am glad that I had you.” the challenge in her voice was familiar. People often said she and her mother were exactly alike.

A familiar chirp punctuated the silence. “I have to take this.” she squeezed her mother’s shoulder before standing and cutting through the kitchen, avoiding the dining room, and beelining straight to her old bedroom.

With a practiced flick of the wrist she unpocketed and opened her knight saber communicator in one movement. The red flash of light made her blood run cold with both anxiety and excitement. Adrenaline.

How it was even still able to function was beyond her, the status read very clearly: OFFLINE.

Still, one unread message waited for her. Almost unheard of, on this device. It had always been calls, and urgent ones, too.

“Take care of Priss and Nene.” there was no sender address, didn’t need one. Linna knew who it was. She wasn’t expecting the onset of anger, when it came.

That’s it? That’s all?

Linna hurled it at the nearest corner of the room, sending a lamp careening and breaking into 3 heavy pieces. She’d clean that up later. The communicator laid open, unassuming at the foot of a dresser.

Sylia always asked for more than you could give. How rich people could be so stingy with their time and energy when they seemed to have more of it than anyone in the world was vexing.

And really, they had saved the world hadn’t they? What was this empty feeling eating at her?

Take care of Priss and Nene.

  
“Goddamnit, Sylia.” It wasn’t even a proper goodbye.

A small, stinging part of her brain was eager to remind her that she couldn’t take care of Priss and Nene even if she wanted to. An even smaller part wished she’d never come back from the mission at all. Easily toyed with and discarded by Sylia’s literal brainchild, Galatea. That resemblance was uncanny. Linna laughed darkly.

“Linna?” The sound jolted her from the thought.

She opened the door a crack. “I’m fine mom, sorry, I just need some time alone.”   
“Okay…” her mom’s eyes narrowed as she attempted to peer over Linna’s shoulder.   
Linna moved to block her line of sight. “I’ll stay, so please, I just need some time.”   
Linna’s mother threw her hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright. Come out for breakfast in the morning okay?” Linna saw a small, relieved smile on her mom’s face, and thinking about it brought her some modicum of comfort when she tried hard to fall asleep.

-

Weeks passed. Nights were restless, Linna’s mind never straying too far from Sylia’s outstanding request on the saber comm.

She tried to text Priss on her cellphone. Tapping out multiple drafts, all of them overly friendly and manufactured. None of them make the cut, the guilt for not reaching out sooner a plague on her heart.

  
Why couldn’t Linna have done more to help? How had Priss defeated Galatea when she and Nene failed? Had they always just been the stabilizing fins to Priss’s liftoff, Linna too wrapped up in herself to notice?

_ What is it about you that’s so special? _ No, too honest, aggressive. Can’t send that. She backpedaled out, as it saved to drafts.

A simple “Hello” would have to do for now. Anything more would run Priss off, too clingy.

Family left her alone, for the most part. She stole away in the middle of the night once to throw the broken lamp in the garbage, careful to let no one see, though her room was noticeably darker than before.

She had trouble keeping food down, didn’t have the energy to run past the canals like she used to. Had nightmares, but Linna was expecting those. Always had them, ever since the first time Sylia had put her through the simulation.

A simulation.

The sensation of cashmere was overwhelming. Linna opened her eyes, and the distinction felt weird. She laid naked, she realized, underneath a slow, moving mass. It pulled away from Linna then, uncurling graceful long limbs and it, or rather she, became clear.

Sylia. Half-dressed tantalizingly in an expensive top. Linna struggled to suppress small hints of arousal, a gasp, the prickling pain of blood pinking her ears.

Linna wanted to will herself awake, but her mind felt slow and stuck in the maze of trying to do it. It almost hurt.

Sylia knew. They never spoke of it, but the way Sylia teased Linna when they were alone together was just intentional enough to keep Linna on edge.

“Linna…” The way the garment clung to Sylia’s figure was unfair.

Linna shut her eyes tight, pulling at her hair with both hands.   
Sylia caught them easily and moved Linna’s hands so that they were cradling the impressive heft of her breasts instead.   
Linna instinctively squeezed, feeling the fat shift in her hold and Sylia sighed her name encouragingly. Linna felt a warm wetness on her thigh from where Sylia had settled over her and begun to move again.

“Please, Linna… Fuck me.”

Linna succumbed then, rocking forward and pushing Sylia down by the shoulder, moving the sweater up over her face and groaned her approval at the sight. Sylia’s large, gradient-pink areola so different from her own, arms caught above her head in the sleeves of it.

Sylia purred in response, and Linna put a hand over her mouth. “Don’t say anything.”

  
She sucked on Sylia’s breasts and nipples, and moved a spit-slick hand between them before hitching a leg over her shoulder and pressing their labia together. She bucked experimentally at first, increasing as her confidence grew to an almost wild pace.

Linna was close.   
“I need you.”

The voice wasn’t Sylia’s anymore. She met Priss’ intense, unreadable gaze. Linna didn’t stop. Couldn’t.

Let’s assimilate, Priss said without moving her lips.

Linna came hard, her strong muscles flexing involuntarily. The cold shock of thick biometal suddenly invaded Linna. It filled her. Biometal gushed from where they were connected.

Linna gasped and looked up to see Priss placing her fingers slick underneath her eyelids, leveraging the angle of her fingers to better apply the force from directly behind them and surely, Priss’ eyes connected by long stalks seemed to shoot out.

Priss reached up and wove her fingers behind Linna’s head. Linna had seen worse. But still... Her stomach churned. Priss, with great strength, pulled Linna’s head close to her sockets.

I NEED YOU.

Through the socket Linna could see… No, hear. It was dark, something writhed in the periphery, that was sure. But there was a lower hum. It crackled in the darkness and the sound seemed to pour into her ear, and she could feel it too much, tickling each individual hair as it sang in tones.

COME COME COME

“Where? Where are you?”   
  
She felt a drop land coolly on her forehead from where the biometal had begun falling in chunks from the ceiling and pooling up through the floor.   
  


She saw creamy cashmere, and Sylia moved away from her then, uncurling those graceful long limbs from behind her head, bearing down on Linna’s thigh with an overfamiliar wetness.

Linna grunted in frustration.   
This time Sylia leaned down deep in her ear, imparting, “The silky doll, Linna. Come, I need you.”

Biometal overcame them, crushing their bodies together. She could hear bones snapping under the pressure, pockets of air popping at the release. It cooled hard around them, and began to enter Linna’s nose and mouth, pressing at the back of her throat and she shot up, eyes wide, alone in her room.


	2. Example Maiden Japan / Devil’s Food

Easily able to get in contact with Nene, her response was almost immediate. Linna’s heart leaped at the thought of seeing her again, and Nene demonstrated the feeling twice over with emoticons and text hearts. There had been no signs of Sylia or Mackey since Galatea, Nene said. Neither of them had heard back from Priss. Nene warned her not to doubletext. Linna didn’t know what that meant and didn’t ask.

-

The next morning she’d placed her travel bag neatly by the front door and took a seat next to her mother on the porch.

“So…”   
“You owe us a new lamp.”

A heavy moment.

“I can do that.”

“Good. Tell me again why you’re going back to Tokyo?”   
“I felt like I was part of something bigger than myself there. Something I can’t leave behind.”   
“You and your big dreams… Everything’s bigger in the city, isn’t it?” Mom sounded almost resentful. “You know, the simple life.. A life like ours, we’re very happy,”   
“Mom,” Her mother quickly raised a finger at that.   
“You’re interrupting. I don’t know what it is about that place that calls to you. Maybe you think you can save the world as an office worker, I don’t know.”

“Mom-”   
“Don’t interrupt. I know it may not be what’s right for you, but it was for me. For your father and I, having you… You are  _ our _ world. I can’t imagine anything bigger than you. Just, eventually. It doesn’t have to be now, but eventually, tell us why you really went back.” Linna knew not to argue anymore.   
“I love you, mom.”   
“I love you too Linna. And check your damn email every once in a while.”

-

Tokyo was littered with Boomer debris, what Galatea assimilated in her takeover of nearly all notable structures resulted in an almost uninhabitable terrain, roads bubbled up at random. Couldn’t imagine what the subways looked like.

Physical wreckage blocked off familiar side-streets and establishments, their outsides skewered and warped almost organically.

Most who lived there now were construction workers, contractors, important government officials and their families or foreign military, some displaced people too. Meager aid was flown in from other parts of the country and the world, but it would take years to rebuild. What could be said for their economy and culture was left up to the speculation of the nation’s experts. You could see debates and conferences online or hear them on old school radio, if you were able to link up to any reception.   
  


Space was cluttered with technological remains that decorated the sky. Ecologically, scientists were still unsure what the long-term effects of the sun being blocked at unpredictable, sometimes disturbingly long, intervals were, but they had guesses. None too good, at that.

No one stopped her from arriving in Tokyo that afternoon. There weren’t resources to keep people from coming in, much how there hadn’t been any to help people from getting out. The number of tents had only increased since she’d last seen it.

Linna secured a room at a run-down hotel near her old apartment complex with what remained of her savings.

I’m in Tokyo, she sent Priss. Still hadn’t heard back from her the first time.

Thinking, she searched up Nigel’s auto shop online. Was that what it was called? She couldn’t remember. Shit. There were a couple hits, but they were farther than she remembered, and worse, reportedly out of business now. She’d have Nene do some digging, and tapped out the request without a second thought.

Linna laid back on the scratchy hotel sheets. Something her boss once told her about that district being one of the first to rebuild after the Great Quake floated through her thoughts. There was another place she could be, if it was even standing. It wasn’t too late in the day. Maybe not late enough to catch Priss there, honestly. She washed off the travel grime and changed into her usual sneakers and button up.

-

The poster was faded, but it was still there, Priss’ piercing eyes plastered across the wall. She shivered, remembering the last time she’d seen them. Posted up outside the venue where she and her band would play…

  
“Hey!” Linna jumped, feeling red handed, and turned towards the gruff voice coming down the alley. “Haven’t seen you in a minute!”

Leon. She wished she could find his presence reassuring. “Hello…” she waved mildly and forced a smile that he laughed at. Was it that obvious?

  
“I guess it’s true then.”

“What’s true?”

  
He gave her a once-over. “You’re into chicks.” Wasn’t a question.

“What!? Where’d you get that from? What is it, the watch?”

Leon shook his head and sighed. “No. But I can tell, we’re here for the same thing,” he gestured to the poster. “And before you ask, I haven’t seen her either. Been coming here pretty often, hoping.”

Linna turned her attention back to the print, like it could tell her something he couldn’t. Sirens blared distantly.

“Come on,” Leon held the door open. “Safer inside.”

  
Linna raised an eyebrow. Alone in an abandoned building with a beefy ex-cop wasn’t most women’s idea of “safer,” but after being in a life-or-death situation with Leon a few times, she’d come to trust him a little.

He sat at one of the furthest tables and lit up, pulling an ashtray closer. “You mind?”

  
Linna shrugged. He was already doing it anyway, why bother asking?

“Used to come watch her sing a lot. Drove me crazy.”

  
“Past tense?”

  
“Yeah. We broke up. Or at least, I think we did.”

  
Linna sniffed at that. “Didn’t realize you were ever officially dating.” She could barely make out his slow smile with how dark it was.

“You got me there. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you.”

  
“Oh yeah, Knight Saber knitting circle. Every Thursday.”

“Sorry, didn’t mean it like that. She’s real private, ain’t she? Never talks about that stuff, like how she’s feelin’…”

“Didn’t take you for the sensitive type.”

Leon exhaled loudly. “Hell. Neither did I, kid.”

  
“Don’t call me kid.”

  
“Okay, okay, sorry. Linna, when you do find her… don’t try to pin her down. She just runs farther away.”

  
“Is that what you did?”

  
“I like to think I didn’t.”

  
“You being here now isn’t trying to pin her down?”

  
“Nah...I don’t want her that way. She’s more beautiful wild,” Linna cringed inwardly. “Just wanted a chance to see her one last time before I leave.”

Linna let the moment breathe. “You’re leaving?”

  
“Yeah,” he murmured, covering his mouth with his wide palm. “After what happened with the ADP, there’s no way I’ll find work here again. I’m probably wanted for some kind of treason.”

Linna doubted he understood the full implications of that, but she let it slide.   
  
“Daley’s found work in America with the police… Said he’d help me get my foot in the door if I learned some English.”

“Good luck with that.”

  
“Thank you.” Leon replied in English, elbowing her gently. “What about you?”

  
“What  _ about _ me?”

“Got any plans?”

  
“Not sure yet, to be honest. I feel kind of lost…”

  
He started on another cigarette. “I get it. Not a day goes by I don’t miss those bastards down at the ADP. Can I ask you somethin’?”

  
Linna closed her eyes. He was about to ask anyway.

“You and Priss… Did you ever…?”

“Ever what?”

  
“Nevermind.” He finished quickly, and stood up, tamping out the cigarette and tucking it behind his ear. “Here, I want you to have this.” He fished out a pocket knife and placed it securely in her palm. It felt solid, she pulled out the blade and ran a finger along its tip. “Careful, I actually did sharpen that thing.” Sure enough, a small drop of blood beaded on the tip of her pointer. She sucked at it and pulled the tab, closing it against the table.

  
Leon flashed her a stupid grin. “It’s lucky, you know. It’ll keep you safe.”

  
“Thank you.” Linna said in English, and meant it.

On the way out, Leon grabbed a stray, gold beer can and alley ooped it into the garbage with more celebration than necessary.

-

Nene had the address to Nigel’s shop, because of course she did, “Dummy!”   
Linna fell asleep with no problem that night, despite her bed back in Kyushu being much nicer.

Her eyes opened. Not awake, no. But open.

She pulled herself onto her elbows in the bed. Slanted blinds allowed the scarce, warm light of a streetlamp and threw shadows across her body. Body... The difference in physicality was subtle. Her nerves stretched to fill it out, a yawn, frayed ends skirting the surface of skin. The cold crawl of alarm began to creep up, pounding into her temples.

She pulled the sheets down lower. These hips were wider, arms more slender and underdeveloped. Long, full breasts weighed heavily against her chest, seeming to rest in whatever direction they pleased.

The inverted nipples were puffy, light brown, and puckered as she teased one between fingers. She trailed a hand downwards, taking time to trace the soft hill of the stomach before advancing on soft, dark curls below.

Linna became acutely aware of another presence in the room with her. She searched the dark corners for malicious shadows that hadn’t been accounted for, but saw none. “Hello? Who’s there?”   
  
_ That’s what I’m wondering. _

The statement was voiceless. It slipped simply into her conscience, existing as naturally as if it had always been there.

She relaxed fully onto the bed, pulling the covers up despite the ceiling fan rocking in an earnest effort to cool her down.

_ Who are you? _

“I’m not sure…” Linna could feel every muscle shifting carefully under her control.

No response.

She kneaded the plush thighs. Felt a hard to ignore heat coiling in her lower abdomen. She slid a finger between labia tentatively, and found she was already wet.

  
She pushed in and out of its entrance, feeling lubrication drip down to her ass.

Her hand shot up to her neck for reassurance, what seemed a muscle memory, tangling in the soft mess of necklaces she found there. She rubbed a single, hanging bullet shell absentmindedly. Priss’ necklace.

She pushed deeper inside, slipping in a second finger and savoring the stretch. She tested the tight circle of muscle below her taint with a ring finger, letting the wetness from before influence its give and slipped a ring finger in. She felt the thin skin between the two shake. She felt so open, full. The previous measured thrusts were substituted for a more animalistic frenzy.

_ Enjoying yourself? _   
  
Linna startled. The presence had been laying so low, making itself nearly undetectable once more, that she had forgotten completely about it.

  
She tensed, stomach beginning to quiver with effort.

“I want to-- I think I’m gonna come!”   
  
_ Make me. _

Working arm on the verge of soreness, she brought the other down to straddle her clit between two fingers. The new position squeezed her breasts together, spilling them out over her arms.

Linna began to drift then, a yolk in egg white. Her haphazard control was being tested entirely.

She wanted to put Priss on her knees and take her from behind, to kiss each and every one of her toes. Take her into her mouth and-

Suddenly her head was thrown back, panting raggedly.

Wanted to reach all the way into Priss’ core, make hard contact with it over and over again. Deliver her very own, personal virus. The nucleus pink and hot, giggling as it took. It shattered, wrapping around itself protectively, making her breasts and stomach swell from the labor of it. From behind her eyelids colors fuzzed in muted, houndstooth television and kaleidoscoped endlessly in a split second’s time.

A pair of faceless eyes gazed back into hers.

They came with a shout, and Linna was gone.


	3. Throbbing Organ

Morning came. Sun shone barely through a window, albeit a different one from before, and Linna had to literally pinch herself to confirm her own body. Scar on the left knee from hurdles, freckle on the right palm… She splashed cold water on her face before setting out to the address Nene had given.

The front of Nigel’s auto shop was mysteriously untouched by Galatea. Or maybe it had already been repaired. Linna wasn’t sure which was more likely.

She ventured to the garage side, peering around a corner. Predictably, there was Nigel, working on something that read to Linna as ambiguously as the rest of Tokyo’s mechanical masses did.

“Um,” her voice felt too loud, forceful suddenly. “Hello, Nigel.” She made little movement forward, unsure of what to do with herself.

Silently, he turned his head to face her. He disentangled from his work before standing up. The seconds seemed to drag on. Was she supposed to say something here?

“Have you seen Priss?” She tried to sound casual. She didn’t, and the sting of embarrassment burned her cheeks.

Nigel shrugged, and crouched back down to his project. Was that a no, then?

“I mean-- How have you been?”   
  
Nigel paused, turning to look at her again with a raised eyebrow.

Linna set her bag down and encroached on him a little. “Have you heard from Sylia or Mackey since…?”

“I’m fine, Linna.” his voice was steady as always. He set a tool down, traded it out for another.

“What are you working on?”   
  
“Engine.”

She picked up a small something that had rolled to her feet, some type of bolt, and crouched down with him.

“Missing one.” She said with a smile, placing it next to a few others laying neatly on a heavily stained rag beside him.

He looked at it and grunted. She thought it sounded like a sort of thankful grunt.

He let her watch for some time as he worked.

“Water.”

“Huh?” He pointed over to a worktable with a large water dispenser and paper cups.

“If you’re thirsty.”

Oh! “Yes… Thank you. Say,” Linna always got the impression she was speaking more  _ at _ Nigel than with him. Couldn’t puzzle him out. She’d seen the quiet, hard line of his back as he worked at least a hundred times. “Why did Sylia leave?”

His hands stalled, for not long at all. Then he continued to work. “That I can’t say.”   
  
Linna swirled the water in her cup carefully. “Nigel, I-”

The loud sound of a heavy door opening behind them almost launched the water right out of Linna’s hands.

“What’s she doing here?” The voice had a crack of electricity traveling up Linna’s spine, ears warm and legs jellying.

Long, sinuous legs. Boots, of course. Always on, like she had somewhere else to be at any given moment and needed to leave. It made Linna itchy to think about, like she was filled with ants, brain in a grip to come up with any excuse to continue to exist in her presence. Everything felt like a test with her.

Priss pulled a towel from around her neck. Her hair was wet, and sticking down and to her shoulders for the most part. Linna knew, when it dried, it’d be sticking up at random angles where Priss had cut it in the bathroom mirror. Never was one to fuss with the details…

Linna sheepishly fixed her eyes on Nigel, voice high with accusation, “Why did you lie about where Priss was?!” He only shrugged.

“Better not get involved in business between women…”

“He’s right.” Priss spoke. “What do you want?”

“You aren’t answering my-- or Nene’s texts!”

“If I wanted to, I would’ve.”

Silence blanketed over the three of them. She felt crushed by it.

Nigel dusted off the front of his pants, seemingly unbothered, and stood up. “Linna, leave your scooter, I’ll look at it. Needs a tune up.”

If it weren’t for the current situation Linna might have found that heartwarming. “Then how am I supposed to get home?”   
  
He jerked a thumb towards Priss. “She’ll take you.”

Priss and Linna looked at each other.

Priss moved to grab her jacket off a nearby folding chair and eased her arms through it, pulling her hair out of the collar. Coolly, she said, “Whatever happened to not getting involved with business between women,” and Nigel tossed her a set of keys.

-

Priss revs the motorcycle engine more than necessary, in Linna’s opinion.

When she’d finally settled in behind her, she hesitated. Priss reached back to grab Linna’s arms and place them around her midsection without production. “It’s fine. Relax.”

She didn’t.

And when Priss dropped her off at the hotel Linna didn’t want to let go. “Text me when you get home.”

Priss stared at her blankly.

“What?”   
  


Priss shook her head. “Nothing. Maybe I will.”

She didn’t.

-

Nene wasn’t responding to her messages, a sign that she’d passed out and wouldn’t be awake until the middle of the night. Linna didn’t know anyone with a worse sleeping schedule.

She should probably check her email, reply to her mom, but she wasn’t ready yet. Maybe tomorrow.

She rifled through her travel bag, ate the last apple she packed. Was practically going to have to live off granola bars at this point. With any luck there’d be vending machines nearby, and it’d be a real gamble as to whether or not there was even a company around to keep them stocked.

Linna took her knight saber communicator off its cable. She knew it was stupid to keep charging it, but she couldn’t stop. Maybe it was out of some sense of duty, or responsibility, or bad habit.

OFFLINE

It said that, but recently she’d sworn she saw it blink green. Maybe she was going crazy for real.

All this energy was eating at her. She grabbed both her communicator and pocket knife and added them to her fanny pack, tying her laces extra tight for her evening run.

-

The route was familiar, sort of. Parts of it needed detours, some of which no longer existed. She tried to push mental images of space trash contorting into a hideous, pale face from her mind.

It was a far run, but it felt as though she’d floated here, legs with a mind of their own.

The outside of Silky Doll looked the same as ever, though upon closer inspection she saw the windows had been deliberately blacked out from the other side. Linna put her ear to the glass, desperate to hear some sign of life. The building was so large and reinforced you’d be hard pressed to hear any noise from inside at all, but it was worth a shot.

Linna raised a fist, banged on the door. Once. Twice. Three times. Irritation ground in her chest as time passed with no indication of a response. She unzipped her fanny pack and fumbled with the knife, testing its edge on the cables that bound the doors together with a heavy lock, on top of what she knew was a security system on the other side. No, what was she thinking? This wouldn’t cut it.

Putting the knife back in the pack, her fingers found the hard edges of the saber comm. She lifted it out slowly, almost involuntarily. Linna didn’t want to hope for this anymore.   
OFFLINE   
Linna hit her head against the door, p-

What was that?   
  


She looked down at it again.

OFFLINE

But if she held it to her ear, she could hear… Something. A low buzz came from the saber comm. One she hadn’t heard from it before. It wasn’t white noise, more like the static of a radio. And if she listened closely, peaks and lulls reached for a distinct form in the greyness of it. Small fluctuations, starting and stopping. She took a few manic steps in front of the store. Just when she thought she’d begun to piece out a few words, it’d shift. Reports of a… Preparations are… A tremendous explosion… She paced. It was like she had to chase it, the reception wiggling just out of range every so often. She thought, maybe vainly, that she heard it say her name.

Whether the feeling was excitement or fear, Linna had a hard time knowing. She saw a wide, white face with dark, deep-set eyes staring at her from the corner of a far away window. Her legs were bolted to the ground, refused to let her get any closer. She fixed her eyes as it fuzzed in and out of existence, like a reflection on water. She knew it was time to go.

LINNA,

LINNA,

LINNA

Linna ran faster than she had in a long time.

-

By the time she gets home, Nene’s awake.

They do some back and forth over dates, finally agreeing on Friday for a sleepover. Linna is midway through a draft about what she saw at Silky Doll when she gets a facetime request from her mom and her thumb hits ‘accept’ before she’s able to fully process it.

“Oh!” Her mom’s voice blares through the speaker. “You picked up fast.” She looks well.

  
“Ah, yeah. I just got home from a jog.” Linna attempts to tuck some loose strands of hair behind her ear.   
  
“Jogging? At this time of night? It’s late Linna… What’s that?”

“What’s what?”   
  
“ _ That. _ ”

Linna looks next to her, fanny pack and its contents spilled haphazardly on the bed.

“A knife? Linna, that’s more dangerous than not carrying one at-”

“It was a gift! A gift, mom.”   
  
“Who’s giving you a  _ knife _ as a gift? Isn’t that sort of…”   
  
“His name’s Leon. He’s a cop. Or, ex-cop or something.”   
  
“Leon, huh…” Shit. But it was too late now. “How come I’ve never heard of him?” She didn’t need to see the smirk on her mom’s face to know it was there, to hear the telltale lilt to her voice that she hated so much.

“Because, it’s not that important…”

“Not important enough to go back to Tokyo, apparently. Lucky guy.”

Something about her mom mistaking Priss’ ex for her current fling made Linna feel really ugly.   
  
“It’s not like that,” she tried not to trill into the higher octaves, but couldn’t keep the defensiveness out of her voice. “Really.”   
  
“Well, okay. Didn’t mean to bother you, I was just about to go to bed and wanted to see how my daughter was doing.” Mom brought a hand up to cover her mouth, eyes crinkling at the corners. “Sure there isn’t any way you could get a ride to and from your  _ jog _ ?”   
  
“Mom!”

“Sorry, sorry, but you make it so easy… I’ll leave you be. Just had to make sure you were still alive.”   
  
“Okay. Goodnight mom.”   
  
“When do you think you’ll be coming back to Kyushu?”   
  
“I’m not sure yet. I’m really tired, can we talk about this later?”

  
“... We’ll talk about it more in the morning.”   
  
“Okay. Goodnight mom.”   
  
“Goodnight Linna.”


	4. Brace Yourself

Priss finally texted Linna back, wanting to know if Linna was “down to go for a ride before picking her scooter up from Nigel’s.”

Linna replied ‘Yes’ before Priss could change her mind. She really wanted to reply in all caps, but that’s something she picked up from Nene and she didn’t think Priss would appreciate it the same way.

The wait was brutal. Linna couldn’t stop checking her hair, attempting to smooth down a stubborn cowlick in the back. Adjusted her watch, checked her pockets. Did she forget anything? Did she have to pee? No, she already peed, remember?

Before Linna is able to pull herself apart completely, she got another text. Priss was waiting.

The sight of Priss in her helmet and leather always did something funny to her heart. Priss might be the one, single thing in Tokyo that hadn’t changed since Linna had first seen it.

Priss gestured to the back of her hair.

Yes, Linna sighed, a cowlick. She secured her own helmet so that it was snug.

Certainly hadn’t changed.

She was able to wind her arms around Priss with a little more ease this time, about the same lack of grace, though, and adjusted to the feeling of the bike roaring beneath her. The small contact of Priss’s back against her chest made Linna dizzy. It had been so long since she’d been this physically intimate in ways that didn’t involve violence… Maybe since Galatea, with Nene on the beach. Since Priss and Linna last rode together. It felt goddamn foreign.

Priss took her around the district a bit, easily avoiding paths that had been altered by boomers, sometimes taking them intentionally. The ride was a little rocky, but what made Linna tug on Priss’ shirt frantically was when they pulled up on a red light and Priss showed no sign of stopping.

“Priss!”

“What, what??” Priss stopped, but now they’re in the middle of the intersection.

“It’s a red light! And we’re--!?”   
“It’s okay.” Priss started them back up again, yelling over the sound of the engine. “No one goes this way!”

At the next red light, though, Priss did stop. She was right, no one is here. Like Galatea died and Tokyo was just the irrelevant shell she was born out of.

Priss waited.

“They’re really gone… No more Boomers…”

  
“You miss ‘em?”

  
Linna smiled. “Kind of, despite everything.”   
  
“I miss them cleaning the streets. Place is filthy.”   
  
People born and raised in Tokyo were a different breed. “Heard anything about how the automated workforce is faring without the use of Boomer cores?”

“If I knew something like that, maybe I’d be a mechanic.”   
  
“The people who fixed Boomers, weren’t they more like programmers?”   
  
“Hell if I know.”

“God, I miss Nene.”

They ended up at a secluded spot facing a bridge that no longer had its lights intact. It was quiet except for the sound of running water underneath. Probably the first time in over a hundred years that the stars were visible in this spot, the city lights that do work look like a sunrise by comparison.

“I used to come here a lot.” Priss said. Linna didn't say anything, wanted to press her for a little more information. “It looked different then, but… I like how it looks now, too.”

“Thanks for showing it to me.”   
  
“I figured you’d need to know your way around the new streets anyway. If you’re staying, that is.” Priss fiddled with a cigarette.

“I’m not sure if I want to stay yet or not.” If it made Priss feel any certain way, she didn’t show it.

“You saying I showed you my secret romantic spot so you could bag yourself a man for no reason?”

Linna laughed at that, “A man?”   
  
Priss raised her eyebrows. “A woman then?”

“I’m sorry, did you say  _ you _ took  _ me _ to your secret romantic spot?”

“Touche.” They sat in silence for a spell and dangled their feet over the edge. Their thighs touched.

“You miss your old bike?” Linna asked.

“Fuck, yeah.”   
  
“...At least the new one’s still red.”

Priss hummed.

“Priss, do you ever…” Linna had a hard time choking this one out.

“Ever…?”

“Sometimes I hear my name from the saber comm, like it’s calling me… and I’ve been having these weird dreams, and I feel like at any moment all of this junk could get back up and start walking around. I don't know Priss, is that crazy? Am I really crazy?”   
  


Priss let that sink in.

“I know what you mean. I hear it too.”   
  
“You do?”   
  
“Yeah, but... I think it’s okay. It isn’t the craziest thing you’ve done.” Priss got up and offered Linna a hand, “C’mon. Nigel’s waiting.”

-

The ride back was quiet, except for maybe Linna trying to regulate her heavy breathing against Priss’s ear. Priss had helped her into her helmet.

By the end of it, Linna’s tailbone had gone numb and given new, strange awareness to her body. She tried to seem unaffected but once they pulled into Nigel’s garage, the look Priss gave her revealed Linna hadn’t been particularly successful.

“Enjoying yourself?” Priss asked. Linna fiddled with her helmet straps, managing to get it off and let it rest between her legs. Priss pulled her bike up to the maintenance stand and dismounted somewhat awkwardly. With great effort, Priss kicked the stand up to the rear tire and set it down into place. “Stay there.”

“Jeez…” Linna commented on the bumpiness of the maneuver.

“Hey, I’m great at riding ‘em, not working on ‘em.” Priss gave the bike and Linna a once-over as she circled around, trailing a hand alongside it. Priss’s hands rested alongside Linna’s thighs. “Turn around for a sec.

Linna does so, Priss moving her hands with Linna’s body as to not interrupt the action. Something about the new position, maybe the backseat, intensified the sensation. Bumps it up a notch. Priss leans in.

  
“If you think this is sexy, you should have seen the motoslave.”

  
“What happened to it?”   
  
A cough to their left rips them both from the conversation. It’s Nigel.

  
“She’s ready.”   



End file.
